The Iliad | Book Summary in English — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03greetings ladies and gentlemen and
2. 0:05welcome to a new episode of great books
3. 0:08in 10 minutes by the end of this episode
4. 0:10you will know all that you need about
5. 0:12one of the greatest epics of all time
6. 0:14the iliad in the epic genre the iliad is
7. 0:18undoubtedly among the greatest works
8. 0:20ever written it was originally composed
9. 0:23in the old ionic language which was one
10. 0:26of the main four greek dialects it is an
11. 0:29unparalleled literary achievement that
12. 0:31after almost 30 centuries remains
13. 0:34unrivaled in the western canon the main
14. 0:37themes of the iliad are love
15. 0:39honor
16. 0:40friendship
17. 0:42rivalry
18. 0:43free will
19. 0:44and fate the iliad was composed by the
20. 0:48greek writer and musician homer except
21. 0:51knowing that he was born sometime around
22. 0:53the 8th century bc everything else that
23. 0:56we know about homer is almost entirely
24. 0:59fictionalized today there are two major
25. 1:02works attributed to homer the iliad and
26. 1:05the odyssey but in antiquity a large
27. 1:08number of other words were believed to
28. 1:10be composed by him today however these
29. 1:13claims are not supported by facts and
30. 1:16were not supported by everyone in the
31. 1:18ancient world either as with the
32. 1:20multitude of legends surrounding homer's
33. 1:23life they prove the importance and
34. 1:25centrality of a person named homer that
35. 1:28encapsulated the entire greek culture in
36. 1:31his works so in a way we can argue that
37. 1:35homer is the embodiment of ancient greek
38. 1:38culture he is the memory of ages through
39. 1:41which all of the fables and tales of the
40. 1:44old world survived and were transferred
41. 1:46from one generation to the next
42. 1:54the chief of gods and the immortal king
43. 1:56of mount olympus held the celebration in
44. 1:59honor of the marriage of peleus and
45. 2:02thetus without inviting aerys the
46. 2:04goddess of chaos it was in the middle of
47. 2:07this feast that aerys arrived uninvited
48. 2:10and resentful therefore to so discord
49. 2:13among gods she threw a golden apple into
50. 2:16the banquet and which was written for
51. 2:18the most beautiful three goddesses
52. 2:21demanded the apple era athena and
53. 2:24aphrodite zeus knowing that choosing one
54. 2:27over the other two will result in more
55. 2:30conflict assigned the task to paris
56. 2:33prince of troy who had a reputation for
57. 2:36being a fair judge among the gods as
58. 2:39each goddess wanted to have the apple
59. 2:42they each showed themselves to paris in
60. 2:44all their beauty and appeared naked
61. 2:46before him each of them then offered the
62. 2:49prince a gift as an incentive in return
63. 2:52for the apple hera promised him all the
64. 2:54kingdoms of europe and asia minor athena
65. 2:57offered him wisdom in battle and
66. 2:59aphrodite promised him the love of the
67. 3:02most beautiful woman in the world
68. 3:04helen queen of sparta who was already
69. 3:07married to kingman elias paris gave the
70. 3:10apple to aphrodite and asked for helen's
71. 3:13love in return the story has it that
72. 3:15when beautiful helen came to age every
73. 3:18king and nobleman in the greek world
74. 3:21wanted to marry her the competition
75. 3:23became so fierce that to preserve peace
76. 3:27and avoid bloodshed they made the pact
77. 3:29that helen herself shall choose her
78. 3:32suitor and she and her future husband
79. 3:35must be both accepted and protected by
80. 3:37the rest of the kingdoms and helen chose
81. 3:40menelius when men elias found out that
82. 3:43in his absence young paris had taken his
83. 3:46wife helen to troy he raised a massive
84. 3:49army from every corner of the greek
85. 3:51world and gave its command to his
86. 3:54ambitious brother agamemnon and that is
87. 3:57how the siege of troy started after 10
88. 4:00years of bloodshed and constant
89. 4:02skirmishes the siege of troy resulted in
90. 4:05nothing but carnage for the greeks the
91. 4:08impenetrable walt of troy stood tall and
92. 4:11behind them prion king of troy
93. 4:14reliant on the bravery of his eldest son
94. 4:17hector remained unabated and defiant in
95. 4:20the face of the foe during this brutal
96. 4:23year achilles the immortal hero of the
97. 4:26greeks who was himself the son of
98. 4:28goddess thetas conquered a small island
99. 4:31near troy called cresa and enslaved its
100. 4:34population among these newly captured
101. 4:37people was a beautiful girl named
102. 4:39astinham astinum's father was a priest
103. 4:42of the temple of apollo agamemnon
104. 4:45demanded the girl for herself and
105. 4:47refused every ransom that her father
106. 4:50offered for her release when god apollo
107. 4:52witnessed this he sends a deadly plague
108. 4:55that ravaged the greek army and forced
109. 4:58agamemnon to give astinum back
110. 5:00displeased by the turn of events and
111. 5:03vengeful towards achilles who brought
112. 5:05the girl to agamemnon in the first place
113. 5:07he compensated himself for this loss by
114. 5:10taking another girl named gracias who
115. 5:13was a subject of achilles a treacherous
116. 5:17act that upset achilles so much that he
117. 5:20refused to take any further part in the
118. 5:22trojan war achilles mother thetis
119. 5:25goddess of water complained to zeus
120. 5:28about agamemnon's betrayal and asked the
121. 5:30great god to punish him zeus in return
122. 5:33sent a false dream to agamemnon and
123. 5:36convinced him that he would be
124. 5:37victorious if he attacked the city's
125. 5:40walls with all of his forces in the
126. 5:42morning on the day of battle first
127. 5:44menelaus king of sparta who had lost his
128. 5:47wife to paris challenged the trojan
129. 5:50prince to a duel harris answered the
130. 5:52call but failed to defeat menelaus when
131. 5:55he was about to lose his life aphrodite
132. 5:58helped him escape and took him back to
133. 6:00his room in his father's palace where he
134. 6:03was joined by helen meanwhile among gods
135. 6:06zeus argued that menelaus must be
136. 6:09declared the winner and the war should
137. 6:11end as the mortals had agreed before the
138. 6:14duel but hera who was still furious at
139. 6:17paris over choosing aphrodite over her
140. 6:20wanted nothing but the total
141. 6:21annihilation of troy and persuaded zeus
142. 6:25to rekindle the flame of war therefore
143. 6:28athena disguised as a trojan soldier
144. 6:30convinced the trojan archer named
145. 6:32panderas to take aim at menelius and
146. 6:35kill him however as pandarus shot the
147. 6:37arrow athena deflected it so that it
148. 6:40would only wound menelius and give the
149. 6:42greeks a reason for war following this
150. 6:45the greek army launched an all-out
151. 6:47assault against the trojans and a bloody
152. 6:50battle started the trojans under the
153. 6:52leadership of hector pushed the greeks
154. 6:55back to their ships and almost destroyed
155. 6:57the greek camp right at this moment when
156. 7:00the greek army was losing heart achilles
157. 7:03best friend and long time battle
158. 7:05companion patrocles begged him to join
159. 7:07the battle and save the day achilles who
160. 7:10was still angry at agamemnon over
161. 7:12kidnapping the girl refused to fight but
162. 7:14agreed to exchange armors with his
163. 7:16friend patroclus so that the greek
164. 7:19soldiers would think achilles had
165. 7:20returned to battle and rally around him
166. 7:23with the arrival of petroclees in
167. 7:25achilles disguise the turn of events
168. 7:27quickly changed in favor of the greeks
169. 7:29the trojans retreated to the city and
170. 7:32petroclees pushed forward against the
171. 7:34enemy and killed everyone in his way
172. 7:37including the mortal son of zeus
173. 7:39sarpidan vengeful zeus decided to kill
174. 7:43police and tasked apollo with taking
175. 7:45revenge for him apollo first convinced
176. 7:48hector to charge the enemy then appeared
177. 7:50behind petroclees and wounded him when
178. 7:53hector arrived heteroclase was on his
179. 7:55knees defeated and ready to accept his
180. 7:58destiny hector humiliated the fallen man
181. 8:01and finished him off only to hear
182. 8:02petroclees foretelling hector's bitter
183. 8:05end with his last breath
184. 8:07achilles wept so loud for his friend
185. 8:10that his mother thetus heard his
186. 8:12lamentations she appeared before him and
187. 8:14promised him that if he delays his
188. 8:16revenge for one day she will go to the
189. 8:19temple of vulcans and return with a new
190. 8:21powerful weapon for him to defeat hector
191. 8:24zeus fearful of achilles rage summoned
192. 8:28the gods to mount olympus and asked them
193. 8:30to interfere in battle should achilles
194. 8:33tried to destroy troy before its time
195. 8:35however upon arriving in earth the gods
196. 8:38decided to stand on opposing hills and
197. 8:41only witness the battle between the
198. 8:43mortals achilles ruthlessly attacked the
199. 8:45trojans and destroyed their formation
200. 8:47after a short battle the entire trojan
201. 8:50army that was camped outside the walls
202. 8:52of troy routed before him finally the
203. 8:55fateful hour when hector and achilles
204. 8:57met face to face arrived hector at first
205. 9:00tried negotiating with achilles but the
206. 9:02greek hero did not show any interest in
207. 9:05conciliation hector knew that he was no
208. 9:08match for his opponent so he ran away
209. 9:10and achilles chased after him at this
210. 9:13moment zeus was determined to save
211. 9:15hector but athena convinced the great
212. 9:18god that the mortals life must end zeus
213. 9:21placed the destiny of both heroes on a
214. 9:24golden scale and when the fate of hector
215. 9:26sank lower he agreed with athena
216. 9:29achilles chased hector around the city
217. 9:31walls three times during hector's fourth
218. 9:34circle around troy athena disguised as
219. 9:37hector's friend diaphabus appeared
220. 9:40before him and convinced the trojan
221. 9:42prince that they could defeat achilles
222. 9:44together at that moment hector stopped
223. 9:46running and decided to face his enemy
224. 9:49the two heroes finally engaged in battle
225. 9:52for a while they fought with spears and
226. 9:55neither one managed to overcome the
227. 9:56other in his last attempt for glory and
228. 9:59in a desperate effort to make up for
229. 10:01fleeing hector charged achilles but he
230. 10:04was still wearing achilles armor that he
231. 10:07took from patrick lisa's body achilles
232. 10:10knew the weakness of the armor and in a
233. 10:12swift move put his spear through
234. 10:15hector's throat king priyam and the rest
235. 10:18of the trojans who were witnessing the
236. 10:21final chapter of hector's life
237. 10:23wailed with grief and the sound of their
238. 10:26morning rose to heavens after burying
239. 10:29his friends patrickois's body achilles
240. 10:32held a series of competitions in his
241. 10:34honor hector's corpse however was
242. 10:37dragged behind chariots and stabbed by
243. 10:40every greek soldier finally apollo asked
244. 10:44zeus to intervene and force achilles to
245. 10:46return hector's body to his father
246. 10:49following zeus's instructions king
247. 10:52priyam went to achilles with a chariot
248. 10:54full of treasures then he tearfully
249. 10:57begged the greek hero and asked him to
250. 10:59think of the bond between him and his
251. 11:01father achilles accepted the ransom and
252. 11:04gave the body back amidst tears and
253. 11:07wailing
254. 11:08the trojans prepared nine days for
255. 11:11hector's funeral on the tenth day
256. 11:14they lit the pyre on fire
257. 11:16and mourn the loss of their legendary
258. 11:19hero
259. 11:20the original epic of the iliad ends with
260. 11:23hector's death and all the other stories
261. 11:26that you might have heard or read in
262. 11:28continuation of the iliad were written
263. 11:30later by other writers especially virgil
264. 11:33who centuries later wrote his famous
265. 11:35sequel to the iliad titled a nait in
266. 11:38which he told the story of the famous
267. 11:40trojan horse the conquest of troy and
268. 11:43the death of achilles
269. 11:46very well ladies and gentlemen we are at
270. 11:48the end of this episode
271. 11:50i hope you enjoyed my summary of the
272. 11:52iliad
273. 11:53please consider subscribing to my
274. 11:55channel and seeing the next episode